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Prior research indicates that empowering leadership has simultaneous contradictory effects on work performance. This study aimed to explore contradictory mechanisms through which empowering leadership is related to work role performance behaviors.

The sample was composed of 274 professionals from five IT companies located in the Baltic area. OLS regression analyses were performed using MEDCURVE for SPSS 23.0.

Empowering leadership is positively related to work role performance behaviors; additionally, perceived uncertainty mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and work role performance behaviors, with the relationship between empowering leadership and uncertainty having a curvilinear U-shape (concave upward). That is, although empowering leadership is positively related to work role performance, the relationship between empowering leadership and work role performance though uncertainty becomes non-significant at high levels of empowering leadership.

This is one of the first studies to demonstrate that empowering leadership is related to work performance through simultaneous compensatory mechanisms. Moreover, this study provides evidence about the curvilinear relationship between empowering leadership and performance through uncertainty (previously unknown).

Technological uncertainty and technological complexity are key characteristics of new product development (NPD) projects that impose significant information processing requirements on organizations. This paper examines the direct influence of technological uncertainty and technological complexity as well as the indirect influence of work experience on organizational information processing capabilities.

The author used a sample of 166 respondents from the German automotive industry and applied linear hierarchical regression analysis.

The results confirm a negative influence of technological uncertainty and technological complexity on organizational information processing capability. This research also supports a moderating influence of work experience on these relationships.

This research helps to understand the relationship between technological uncertainty, technological complexity and OIPC. It represents a first and different approach to measure these constructs for further empirical studies and provides interesting managerial implications.

This book on uncertainty comprises the initial volume in a series titled “New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition”. We asked Frances Milliken and Gerard P. Hodgkinson, two well-known scholars who have made important contributions to our understanding of uncertainty to join us in this opening chapter to introduce this project. The brief bios found at the end of this volume cannot do justice to the broad range of their contributions, but our conversation gives a flavor of the kind of insights they have brought to managerial and organizational cognition (MOC). The editors thank them for helping launch the series with a decisive exploration of what defining uncertainty involves, how that might be done, why it is important, and how the task is changing. We were interested to discover that all five of us are currently involved in research that considers the nature and impact of uncertainty, and we hope that readers similarly find that paying attention to uncertainty contributes to their current projects. Working together, we can advance understanding of organizational settings and effective action, both for researchers and practitioners.

Interrupting work continuity provides a way to improve some project performance, but unexpected and harmful interruptions may impede the implementation. This paper aims to mitigate the negative impact caused by work continuity uncertainty based on the notion of robustness.

This paper develops a float-based robustness measurement method for the work continuity uncertainty in repetitive projects. A multi-objective optimization model is formulated to generate a schedule that achieves a balance between crew numbers and robustness. This model is solved using two modules: optimization module and decision-making module. The Monte Carlo simulation is designed to validate the effectiveness of the generated schedule.

The results confirmed that it is necessary to consider the robustness as an essential factor when scheduling a repetitive project with uncertainty. Project managers may develop a schedule that is subject to delays if they only make decisions according to the results of the deadline satisfaction problem. The Monte Carlo simulation validated that an appropriate way to measure robustness is conducive to generating a schedule that can avoid unnecessary delay, compared to the schedule generated by the traditional model.

Available studies assume that the work continuity is constant, but it cannot always be maintained when affected by uncertainty. This paper regards the work continuity as a new type of uncertainty factor and investigates how to mitigate its negative effects. The proposed float-based robustness measurement can measure the ability of a schedule to absorb unpredictable and harmful interruptions, and the proposed multi-objective scheduling model provides a way to incorporate the uncertainty into a schedule.

While uncertainty has always been a feature of the healthcare environment, its pace and scope are rapidly increasing, fueled by myriad factors such as technological advancements, the threat and frequency of disruptive events, global economic developments, and increasing complexity. Contemporary healthcare organizations thus persistently face what is known as “deep uncertainty,” which obscures their ability to predict outcomes of strategic action and decision-making, presenting them with novel challenges and threatening their survival. Persistent, deep uncertainty challenges us to revisit and reconsider how we think about uncertainty and the strategic actions needed by organizations to thrive under these circumstances. Simply put, how can healthcare organizations thrive in the face of deeply uncertain environments? We argue that healthcare organizations need to employ both adaptive and creative strategic approaches in order to effectively meet patients' needs and capture value in the long-term future. The chapter concludes by offering two ways organizations can build the dynamic capabilities needed to employ such approaches.

This paper analyses and discusses the “learning activities” that comprise obligatory learning at work by employees each month. The management strategy is to use these learning activities to spread knowledge, exchange experience and implement new skills within the organisation. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question: to what extent do these learning activities at the Bank promote adaptive or developmental learning? In addition, the paper asks whether the learning activities amplify or reduce the employees' cognitive uncertainty in resolving work‐related issues.

This case study is part of a four‐year project about workplace learning, in a bank with more than 700 employees located in more than 50 departments of various sizes in Norway.

The research shows that time regularly set aside for necessary information updates and workplace learning is important in a hectic work situation with a strong focus on sales. Within the organization studied, learning is strongly focused on factual knowledge, routines and rehearsal.

Although this qualitative study is based on multiple and triangulated observations the methodology is limited in that it raises the question of how far one can accept the validity of generalizations arising from one case only.

This research adds to the literature on adaptive learning and reduced cognitive uncertainty and will be of interest to those wishing to simplify work‐related issues.

This study aims to examine how Chinese rural-urban migrant workers' socio-economic status was associated with their decent work.

Grounded in the psychology of working theory (PWT), this study tested the path from rural-urban migrant workers' socio-economic status to decent work via work volition, with this path moderated by environmental uncertainty and trade union support. 470 rural-urban migrant workers from four manufacturing enterprises were investigated.

Results indicated that rural-urban migrant workers' socio-economic status was positively associated with rural-urban migrant workers' decent work through work volition. In addition, environmental uncertainty weakened the impact of socio-economic status on work volition while trade union support strengthened the relationship between socio-economic status and work volition.

The study contributes to the growing research on the PWT by testing its utility among rural-urban migrant workers in the Chinese context. The study also identifies the crucial effects of environmental uncertainty and trade union support, which are distinctive characters of contemporary China, in the formation process of rural-urban migrant workers' decent work. A detailed explanation of the results and implications is discussed in the end.

Effective change management is important for organizational development, but without knowing what features of change situations impact on employee behavior it is difficult to manage change successfully. Considering the changing age demographic of the Australian workforce and the shortage of skilled labor, the purpose of this study is to examine the important age group of young professionals and its perceptions toward organizational change.

Based on Lazarus and Folkman's cognitive phenomenological model of stress and coping, a framework of change perceptions was used to analyze young professionals' experience of change. A confirmatory factor analysis has been conducted surveying a sample of 261 young professionals from a diverse set of Australian organizations.

The analysis found that frequency of change and planning for change are significantly related to uncertainty, and in turn, that uncertainty is significantly related to job satisfaction and behavioral stress. Interestingly, it was found that although frequency of change is positively related to uncertainty, it is also positively related to job satisfaction. Findings indicate which features of change situations are related to poor well‐being outcomes and are therefore important for managers implementing change and working with young professionals.

The present study clarifies the relationship between young professionals and their perceptions of change. Practical implications of the findings for managers are discussed. Some recommendations for future research are provided.

The purpose of this paper is to review some uncertainties experienced by a group of CEs, and how they are assuaged through their participation in an executive development (ED) programme. These uncertainties relate both to their involvement in the programme as such, particularly during their early days of membership, and to their everyday work experience.

An in‐depth, longitudinal case study of an ED programme undertaken by the authors, using participant observation, semi‐structured interviews and documentary analysis.

Five main CE uncertainties are identified: knowledge, job/career, behavioural, personal, and contextual. The case study section of the paper outlines each of these uncertainties, and illustrates how they are being assuaged through the CE programme.

The usual caveats apply about generalising from a case study. On the other hand, the paper presents a rare detailed “insider” account of and reflection upon chief executives' experience of an ED programme, situating it in the wider contexts of their work and anxieties.

In the light of the uncertainties identified, a number of implications for the design and operation of executive development programmes are outlined and discussed.

New data is presented and analysed, linked to relevant themes in the ED/Leadership Development literatures.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among information‐seeking behavior, interpersonal communication, perceived procedural justice, and the reduction of job‐related uncertainty.

The sample consisted of 323 Japanese white‐collar workers who completed the questionnaires, with a usable sample of 295.

The results of covariance structure analysis (SEM) revealed that: there were not any direct relationships between information‐seeking behavior and the reduction of work‐related uncertainty; information‐seeking behavior induced a change of voice, explanation, and rational interpersonal communication from decision makers; the provision of voice, explanation, and social sensitivity from decision makers caused outcome recipients’ perception of procedural justice; and their perception of procedural justice caused the reduction of job‐related uncertainty.

There are some limitations of the present study that can be addressed in future research. First, the concept of uncertainty might have been used too broadly to have been applied to the concept of job‐related uncertainty. Second, the respondents in the present research were highly educated white‐collar workers and were selected to attend business school by their companies.

The results of the present study have some practical implications. Under a newly introduced managerial system of performance‐based personnel practices, Japanese companies need to establish a system by which workers can form judgements of fairness.

The paper suggests that one must exercise caution when generalizing the findings of the present study without taking into account the characteristics of the respondents.